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nasty bug with disappearing windows from workspace

bug windows missing

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#1 mojmir

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Posted 28 January 2014 - 10:40 AM

hello,

 

i am writing this a bit ahead, but there is one bug in blackbox that really really pees me off. it's there for a very long time, even in Grishka's build.

 

the thing is that sometimes i loose all windows on a particular virtual workspace (screen). the processes are still there healthy, but they have somehow hidden window so they are not accessible. "bring to front" with process explorer says that process has no visible windows.

 

i do not have exact repro, but it occurs sometimes when i am debugging in visual studio, the computer is heavily busy and i switch workspace forth and back.

the result is empty workspace with the programs-that-should-be-there-but-are-not present only in the bbleanbar and empty workspace otherwise. if you click on the bbleanbar, the item disappears from the list.

 

sometimes the disappeared window can be brought back, if the application forces some redraw (for example visual studio executing a break point, which brings the window forward).

 

i am keen to debug it in a medium-range future, but 1oo% reproduction would be handy which i do not have.

maybe some of you know how to reproduce it? or even solve?



#2 pitkon

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Posted 28 January 2014 - 12:12 PM

Have you tried these options?

 

On blackbox.rc:

session.screen0.focusModel:             ClickToFocus
session.screen0.fullMaximization:       true
 
On extensions.rc:
# - Alternate workspace method (workspaces are hidden
# - rather than moved away)
blackbox.workspaces.altMethod:          false
 
# - Automatically switch workspace to active task
blackbox.workspaces.followActive:       true
 
# - Restore minimized windows to current workspace
blackbox.workspaces.restoreToCurrent:   true
 


#3 mojmir

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Posted 28 January 2014 - 07:23 PM

session.screen0.focusModel:             ClickToFocus

i think this one is not relevant, standard behaviour for this is 'click window to focus in' (as on ms windows) or 'focus follows mouse' (some linux windowmanagers)

 

session.screen0.fullMaximization:       true

ugh, this one is somehow related to margins of windows with respect to plugins. not sure, just peeked at the code.

 

blackbox.workspaces.altMethod: false

i encountered this one when i was complaining for non working virtual workspaces when you gave me Jonathan's build. i have to have this one to true in order to workspaces to work properly.

 

blackbox.workspaces.followActive

this one only ensures that if some window on other workspace had some activity (popup probably) then the workspace is switched to where this window resides. concerns only windows that were not minimized/closed

 

blackbox.workspaces.restoreToCurrent:

similar, only controls how minimized windows are restored to current/original workspace

 

--

 

browsing in the sources is "recover windows" menu item. maybe that's the place where to make disappeared windows visible again. it's not fix, but at least one could retrieve the lost windows.

 

Blackbox > Configuration > Misc > Workspaces > Recover Windows



#4 mojmir

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Posted 12 February 2014 - 10:11 AM

for example this occurs more frequently if i am debugging something in one workspace and then abruptly a visual studio on another workspace reaches breakpoint, so blackbox switches there, but i quickly switched back. when i returned there were windows missing as i described.

 

the feature Blackbox > Configuration > Misc > Workspaces > Recover Windows seems doing the job of recovering these lost windows.



#5 diabol

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Posted 12 February 2014 - 01:32 PM

sounds like a race condition



#6 mojmir

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Posted 12 February 2014 - 02:34 PM

i thought blackbox is single threaded, isn't it? if it is not maybe you could write short summary what threads are out there for me?



#7 diabol

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Posted 12 February 2014 - 05:55 PM

the plugins' windows for instance run in their own thread iirc (unless they share a single message queue, but i doubt that), but that's not what i mean.

 

what i meant is that it sounds like there's a race condition between blackbox and the other processes.

i'm sure that if blackbox was the only one in control, everything would be fine, but bear in mind that bb's workspaces are a hack and other processes can (and will) modify their windows' state as they see fit. i believe that somewhere bb's internal state does not reflect the actual state of the windows or handles change or something.

again, i haven't had a look at bb's workspace code, so this is wild speculation :3



#8 mojmir

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Posted 13 February 2014 - 11:41 AM

hehe okay :)

but yes, the bug certainly feels that way



#9 elntfernando

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Posted 19 March 2014 - 11:34 PM

Hey, how are you guys going? Well, i'm fine. I'm new to Blackbox (completely changed and removed things of one theme once, but i'm new). And this bug is really boring me. I like very much blackbox. Mainly for its Desktop easy menu. I'm lost with this bug. The windows just don't appear, i mean, they are not shown in the toolbar, and i have to hit Alt+TAB to find them. But suddenly i figure out that only Windows Media Player stops a the toolbar. Only it goes to the toolbar when minimized. It's fucking strange, no other window does it, only WMP. Can anyone help me? Thank you very much! 


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#10 pitkon

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Posted 20 March 2014 - 06:15 AM

I am afraid I didn't quite understand. Windows (say, Windows Explorer) don't appear at all? And what do you mean they are not shown on the toolbar? Can we have a screenshot, please? And how WMP stops at the toolbar?



#11 elntfernando

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Posted 20 March 2014 - 05:56 PM

I can be pretty wrong, but i think i figure out how all this bug occurs. Everything works fine as it should when the 'explorer.exe' task is still alive. The moment before i kill it, all the windows screens start to be fixed at the desktop, like doesn't exists a toolbar to be fixed in. Example: i'm with Windows Media Player opened, then i kill the 'explorer.exe'. The wmp windows screen won't minimize to the blackbox toolbar, it stuck in the desktop. If i close wmp (with explorer.exe yet dead) and re-open it, it won't even appear at the blackbox toolbar. Here's a screen of one windows program stuck in the desktop. http://imgur.com/WZYQeYS That moment i captured the screen, i was with 3 more programs opened. It won't even stuck at the desktop. I made some tests. After i take the screenshot, i re-opened the 'explorer.exe' task and everything starts to work again. It's all about that explorer.exe thing. The reason i kill 'explorer.exe' task is just because i don't want the Windows Toolbar. The blackbox toolbar is enough and it's useful. I'm asking myself it there's something to do to kill that Windows Toolbar without messing everything around.


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#12 meanmechanics

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Posted 20 March 2014 - 08:01 PM

I can be pretty wrong, but i think i figure out how all this bug occurs. Everything works fine as it should when the 'explorer.exe' task is still alive. The moment before i kill it, all the windows screens start to be fixed at the desktop, like doesn't exists a toolbar to be fixed in. Example: i'm with Windows Media Player opened, then i kill the 'explorer.exe'. The wmp windows screen won't minimize to the blackbox toolbar, it stuck in the desktop. If i close wmp (with explorer.exe yet dead) and re-open it, it won't even appear at the blackbox toolbar.
Here's a screen of one windows program stuck in the desktop.
http://imgur.com/WZYQeYS

That moment i captured the screen, i was with 3 more programs opened. It won't even stuck at the desktop.
I made some tests. After i take the screenshot, i re-opened the 'explorer.exe' task and everything starts to work again. It's all about that explorer.exe thing.

The reason i kill 'explorer.exe' task is just because i don't want the Windows Toolbar. The blackbox toolbar is enough and it's useful. I'm asking myself it there's something to do to kill that Windows Toolbar without messing everything around.

I think you misunderstood something or I am misunderstanding something.

What I understand of your problem is:

1. you are using blackbox on top of windows.

2. you are killing Windows to get rid of windows taskbar.

So I think this have nothing to do with the bug Mojmir is talking about.

to solve your problem, try this:

 

right click on desktop>blackbox>Install/uninstall

 

Attached File  11instal-bb-crop.png   6.29KB   0 downloads

 

then choose blackbox and click set and log out:

 

Attached File  11instal-bb2-crop.png   3.9KB   0 downloads

 

and you're done. No need to kill explorer.exe. If you ever get bored [I heavily doubt this] you just do the same process but this time choose Windows.


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#13 meanmechanics

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Posted 20 March 2014 - 08:33 PM

hello,

 

i am writing this a bit ahead, but there is one bug in blackbox that really really pees me off. it's there for a very long time, even in Grishka's build.

 

the thing is that sometimes i loose all windows on a particular virtual workspace (screen). the processes are still there healthy, but they have somehow hidden window so they are not accessible. "bring to front" with process explorer says that process has no visible windows.

 

i do not have exact repro, but it occurs sometimes when i am debugging in visual studio, the computer is heavily busy and i switch workspace forth and back.

the result is empty workspace with the programs-that-should-be-there-but-are-not present only in the bbleanbar and empty workspace otherwise. if you click on the bbleanbar, the item disappears from the list.

 

sometimes the disappeared window can be brought back, if the application forces some redraw (for example visual studio executing a break point, which brings the window forward).

 

i am keen to debug it in a medium-range future, but 1oo% reproduction would be handy which i do not have.

maybe some of you know how to reproduce it? or even solve?

 

I scarcely use workspaces and the last time it happened I was working on 1 workspace only.  I get this bug when I'm using: paint.net, autocad, explorer (atleast 3 windows), thunderbird, evernote and invoking bb menu or a software through bb menu. It never happened on grishka's build.


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#14 elntfernando

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Posted 21 March 2014 - 12:27 AM

Oh, thank you very much, using it right now!


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#15 E-xecutive

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Posted 28 July 2014 - 05:30 PM

I scarcely use workspaces and the last time it happened I was working on 1 workspace only.  I get this bug .......... It never happened on grishka's build.

+1 approvement

 

Moreover, nor the bb native bar, nor the bbLeanBar -- they do not show MS Excell multiple windows. When more then one Excel documents are opened, I see only the last instance in the bar, and the rest of the documents can be accessed only through the Excell inner menu. The MS Word is OK, the more documents you open, the more you see in the bar. Such mistic thing drives me crazy, it's a non-stop headache to search for opened documents in the Excel menu :wallbash:

 

The OfficeTab helps to overcome this problem another way, but it eats all the benefit from free memory comparing to the Explorer shell. It seems BB is not usable for me if such bug exists (in [color=rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;]grishka's build also[/color])   :( Sorry



#16 mojmir

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Posted 29 July 2014 - 01:30 PM

can you make some screenshots of these bugs, please?

in near future i can try it to reproduce on my machine and try to debug it if it occurs.



#17 mojmir

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Posted 29 July 2014 - 01:33 PM

can you make some screenshots of these bugs, please?

in near future i can try it to reproduce on my machine and try to debug it if it occurs.

 

meanmechanics:

 

I scarcely use workspaces and the last time it happened I was working on 1 workspace only.  I get this bug when I'm using: paint.net, autocad, explorer (atleast 3 windows), thunderbird, evernote and invoking bb menu or a software through bb menu. It never happened on grishka's build.

 

 

same for you.. how exactly can i reproduce it?



#18 E-xecutive

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Posted 30 July 2014 - 12:14 AM

how exactly can i reproduce it?

As to the main subject... I'd love but cannot help to reproduce, because it was chaotic and I just turned them off, since no big need for me in multiple workspaces. Single workspace was not buggy in my situation.

 

As to the MS Office, the screenshots under spoiler

Spoiler

 

In both cases, two Excel books and two Word docs were opened. All of them can be accessed directly from the Windows Tab. But when we go under BB, the Excel books are very uncomfortable to work with -- only the current one can be accessed directly.

 

When preparing these shots, I noticed the clue (never minded before): MS Word creates separate windows for its procs, while MS Excell has a single window for many books. So, this behaviour is not a BB bug. The comfortable feature of WinTab is not implemented in BlackBox, that's it. Nevertheless, if intensively using MS Office+BlackBox, just remember: 1) Word, Publisher, Infopath, Visio -- no difference vs Explorer shell; 2) Excell, Power Point, MS Project -- very uncomfortable to view and edit multiple documents under BlackBox (or something additional like the OfficeTab is needed to help out).

 

PS: The above conclusions checked with x86 Windows 7 and XP, MS Office 2007 and 2003.



#19 E-xecutive

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Posted 30 July 2014 - 10:28 AM

I get this bug when I'm using: paint.net, autocad, explorer (atleast 3 windows), thunderbird, evernote and invoking bb menu or a software through bb menu.

I feel the Windows Explorer has to be completely turned off to eliminate this bug. Just try using the BlackBox as shell while an alternative manager (Q-Dir, Explorer++, XYplorer or something like those) instead of the Windows Explorer. Theoretically, some software may be specific as to the Win API and expect the running Explorer to be the shell as well, not only a file manager.



#20 mojmir

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Posted 30 July 2014 - 04:08 PM

seems like some new windows feature, i've never seen that before :)

 

what about this as a hotfix? does it works better?

Excel has a "Show All Windows in Taskbar" checkbox that determines whether each workbookhas its own button on the taskbar. It is found in xl2007 under Big Button (aka file menu)| Excel Options | Advanced.

from http://www.pcreview....e-t4031424.html







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